Psychiatrist Shortage Worsens Amid 'Mental Health Crisis'

The demand for psychiatrists is becoming a more pressing issue for state and federal lawmakers and has contributed to an expansion of insurance coverage of telehealth to increase access to mental health services in shortage areas.

Companies who recruit doctors for health facilities say psychiatrists are almost as desired as primary care doctors, which have for years been the most in-demand physicians in the healthcare labor market.

“Our fourth most-frequently placed provider so far this year is psychiatrists,” Jim Stone, president of The Medicus Firm, said in a statement.

Stone said psychiatrists have accounted for 5% of Medicus’ total placements this year, which is considered a large number considering the firm places and tracks 40 different types of medical care providers. “This is a very dramatic increase in the demand of psychiatrists for us, as they were not even in the top ten providers placed last year,” Stone added.

The top 20 most in-demand health professionals in 2015, according to Merritt Hawkins, a national recruiter of doctors and advanced practitioners

Several state legislatures and members of Congress are looking for ways to get more doctors-in-training to choose psychiatry as a profession. Perhaps the most publicized example has been the Texas legislature’s approval of a bill that would pay off student loans of mental health professionals that agree to work in underserved areas.

Without a large number of mental health providers, employers and commercial insurers are expanding remote digital access to psychiatrists and other behavioral health professionals. Health insurers like
Aetna (AET),
Anthem (ANTM),
Cigna (CI) and
UnitedHealth Group (UNH) are increasing access to behavioral providers like MDLive, Teladoc and others that provide remote digital access to a variety of health services.